


Pianoforte

by ISingTheSkyElectric



Series: Sheith Month 2018 [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sheith Month 2018, ear trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-04 19:27:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15154007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ISingTheSkyElectric/pseuds/ISingTheSkyElectric
Summary: Keith thinks the screeching in his ears is just a broken comm. He finds out the hard way that it isn't.





	Pianoforte

**Author's Note:**

> Day 1: Dynamics  
> Day 2: Headache
> 
> Dynamics: variation and contrast in force or intensity (as in music)

Keith pauses, switching off the CO2 laser with the flick of his thumb, and wishes for the millionth time that he could just take off his helmet. He flicks his head to try to get the sweat and hair from his eyes. It doesn’t work; his hair is pasted to his forehead. He sucks in a breath of recycled air and grits his teeth to keep in his frustration. The incessant high-pitched screeching in his ears from his broken comms are not helping him to keep his anger under control.

“How’s everyone doing?” Shiro asks over the comms.

Keith hits the boosters on his jet pack to orient himself as he glances around the asteroid ring they’re floating through. Shiro’s far into the distance, hovering near an asteroid the size of Red’s head. He can vaguely see the yellow of Hunk’s armor beyond that, with Lance and Pidge nowhere in sight.

“Almost got a full bag,” Pidge says over the screeching comms.

“Hey, no fair!” Lance shouts. Keith grits his teeth against the spike of pain it causes in his head. “You’re cheating!”

“I can’t help it if I upgraded my scanners to be better than yours,” Pidge answers cheekily.

“I got half a bag, Shiro,” Hunk answers, cutting off the argument.

Keith can hear Shiro’s smile, even with the screech cutting into his eardrums . “Good work. Keith, how you doing?”

He grits his teeth. “Fine.”

“You okay, babe?” Keith closes his eyes, berating himself for causing the worry in Shiro’s voice.

He forces a grin and makes his voice lighter. “Yeah. Sorry. Just really want a shower.”

“Oh, that sounds amazing right now,” Lance groans over the comms.

“We’re almost done guys. This should almost be enough metal for the Tarnathians,” Shiro assures them.

There are groans of relief from the trio. Keith doesn’t join in, turning to stare at the deep yellow of planet Xyra below them. It would’ve been far easier to harvest the strange metal from the planet instead of the asteroids that circled it, but Allura had deemed the planet to be too unstable, even for the lions. So they got stuck with a long EVA, cutting through space rock with lasers that Pidge had put together, searching for bits of metal in asteroids.

Keith switches on the laser again, aiming at the rock while trying to ignore his shrieking comms. A thin layer of sweat has formed between his undersuit and his skin, making him feel disgusting everytime he moved. His head pounds with every pulse of his heartbeat.

Keith’s absolutely miserable.

Slowly, so slowly, he cuts through the asteroid, aiming for the metal that the scanners told in was in the heart of it. His arm starts to shake with exhaustion, even with the lack of gravity making it easier.

“Keith!”

He glances around.

Shiro had slowly drifted closer and Hunk was nowhere to be seen.

“What?” he snaps, not sure who said his name. The screaming in his ears is making it harder and harder to focus.

“Keith! We’re finished!” That was Shiro, who was slowly coming closer and closer.

Keith groans, flicking off the laser and sliding it into his belt. “Shiro, I’m fine. I almost got this chunk out.”

Shiro slowly maneuvers around a large chunk of asteroid. “It’s fine, babe. Leave it. Pidge helped the other two fill their bags. We got enough to make the Tarnathians happy.”

“Any little bit helps, I-” Keith’s voice cuts off with a grunt as the screeching gets louder, drilling itself into his ears and making the pain in his head spike. He squeezes his eyes shut, hands scrabbling over the sides of his helmet as if it’ll stop the noise. He’s vaguely aware of Shiro saying something and touching his shoulder. Keith groans, pressing his head against his knees.

Keith pants around the pain, chanting Shiro’s name as if he can stop the noise. Everything’s lost in a blur of pain and noise. There are hands touching his arms, his head, his shoulders. He kicks out blindly. The noise grows and grows until he can barely breathe. He wrenches at his helmet, trying to get it off, get the noise away. Something drags his hands away. His lungs burn, his throat burns, his head is on fire. He can’t get away, the screeching echoes in his skull.

The noise spikes, the pain spikes, and suddenly it’s -

Gone.

The noise stops, leaving him reeling and his ears ringing. His head still throbs with the aftereffects. Adrenaline is still crashing in his system, fight or flight with no output, his body weak and shaky. He slowly lowers his hands and feels something grab them.

Keith opens his eyes and sees gray. Shiro’s staring at him, backlit by the yellow of the planet and surrounded by asteroids and space. The distant sunlight catches on his white hair and highlights his scar. His mouth is moving rapidly, gray eyes worried. Keith imagines that he can feel the warmth of Shiro’s hands through the gloves.

 _I love him_ , Keith thinks distantly.

Shiro grabs Keith's head, pressing their helmets together. His mouth is still moving but there’s no sound. Keith reaches out and rests his hand against Shiro’s helmet as if his hand can phase through and touch skin.

“I can’t hear you,” Keith says. He’s vaguely aware that he can’t hear his own voice, but pushes that aside to deal with later.

Shiro drags his eyes from Keith’s face. Hitting the booster on his jet pack, he turns both of them until Keith can see that the Castle has moved closer. It hovers against the thick black of space as Shiro slowly leads Keith back. Keith lets him, feeling slightly dizzy even with the lack of gravity. There’s an ache deep in his ears and he feels something wet coating the outsides and start to drip down his neck.

_Something is wrong._

He buries his panic deep within his chest. Telling Shiro will only make him worry, and he can’t cause that.

Entering the artificial gravity of the Castle makes the pain spike and almost causes him to lose balance. The room is tilting, shaking at the edges.

Hands grab at his helmet, tugging it off. The movement feels like its rattling his brain in his skull. His ears burn, wet pressure making them itch.

Warm hands cup his face, dragging his head to the side. Shiro’s face hovers a few inches from his, gray eyes filled with worry.

Keith touches an ear then brings his hand down. Thick red covers the tips of his fingers.

“Shiro,” he says around his pounding heart.

Shiro forces Keith to look him in the eyes and says something he can’t hear.

“Right. Cryopod,” Keith answers, cause that’s all he can focus on. _Cryopods. Heal. Get back to fighting. Don’t make Shiro worry._

He turns, takes a step, and almost falls over. The floor sways under him. His legs feel off, too long and too heavy. His head feels like its been replaced with a water balloon, weirdly hollow and filled with water. His eyes can’t focus. The Castle turns into a hazy white smear.

Keith wakes up in the grasping cold. Metal releases him and he stumbles forward into warm arms. He curls into them, searching greedily for any warmth he can get. The cold has curled its claws deep into his bones and muscles.

“Keith?”

He glances up. Shiro’s staring down at him, relief and worry warring on his face and in his eyes.

“I’m fine,” he gets out through shivers. “What happened?”

“You passed out. We took you to the cryopods."

Keith twists, catching a glimpse of a slowly lowering cryopod behind him. "Oh," is all he can say.

"Burst eardrums. It was due to your Galra side,” Shiro responds, voice soft.

Keith pauses, trying to process the meaning of that before he just gives up. “What?”

Shiro gives him a small smile and Keith feels his heart tug against his ribs. “Pidge and Allura can explain better. They’re waiting in the lounge. Can you walk?”

“I’m fine. I got it.”

He almost falls flat on his face when he stands and Shiro has to grab him before he hits the floor. He carefully helps Keith strip out of the nasty cryopod suit and dresses in his casual gear. Keith face burns at being helped like this, but he’s relied on Shiro in worse situations.

Shiro practically carries him to the lounge, Keith's exhaustion making it hard to keep his feet under him. The rest of the team is waiting in the lounge and Keith almost turns around right there. As much as he wants answers to whatever happened to him out there, he does not want to deal with people at the moment.

“Keith! I saved you some food!”

Scratch that, he’ll stay for food.

Hunk shoves a plate of something in his hands as soon as Shiro maneuvers them down to sit on the couch. It looks like purple mashed potatoes covered in gray steak pieces and blue gravy. The colors make it look disgusting, but the smell is heavenly. Keith’s first bite melts in his mouth in a burst of flavor and he has to stop from moaning.

“How are you feeling, my boy?” Coran asks, peering at him with worry in his eyes.

“Better. I can hear now,” Keith answers between shoveling food into his mouth.

“Oh, that’s good,” Allura says with a relieved sigh, shoulders lowering from their tense position. “We are terribly sorry about that. We forgot to soundproof your helmet.”

“What was that out there?” Keith asks.”I thought it was a bad comm.”

“Well, not really,” Pidge answers, adjusting her glasses. She pulls up a hologram of a planet and Keith vaguely recognizes it as Xyra. “It was actually the planet.”

Lance waves his arms in a wild ‘stop’ motion. “Hold up! You mean the planet caused, whatever, that happened to Keith?”

“Acoustic trauma and yes. You see,” Pidge spins the Xyra hologram with a finger, “planets actually make sound. It’s usually tectonic plates smashing together or atoms in gas giants colliding. It’s far too low for humans too hear in without special equipment.”

“NASA did some recordings of the solar system before the department got absorbed by the ESA,” Shiro puts in, sliding closer to Keith until their sides are pressed together. “Matt liked listening to the Sun’s. He said it was calming.”

“Oh, yeah,” Hunk says. He waves a hand through the air. “Saturn’s was the one that sounded like demons being tortured.”

Lance stares. “Well, that’s terrifying.”

Pidge clears her throat, drawing their attention back to her. “Anyways, it’s too low for humans to hear but apparently not Galra. The Castle and the Lions have enough soundproofing to block out the sound, but not the helmets. That, combined with the earthquake that happened on Xyra while we were out there, was loud enough to damage Keith’s ears.”

He’s aware of everyone focusing on him, waiting for his reaction. But his exhaustion drags at his brain, making it harder for him to connect the dots.

Shiro, bless his boyfriend, picks up on this. “Which means what exactly?”

Pidge sighs. “It was basically the equivalent of a bomb going off next to Keith. It burst his ear drums.”

Keith buries his shock but can feel Shiro flinch next to him.

“So, what?” Keith asks, swallowing the last bite of his food. “What’ll stop it?”

Allura steps forward, tapping through the hologram and bringing up one of his helmet. “We can reconstruct your helmet to have better soundproofing. My father had to do that with the Black Paladin's helmet for Zarkon. To get the necessary equipment, we’ll have to stop by the Olkari of course, but it should prevent anymore incidents like this in the future.”

Keith nods, fully slumping against Shiro. Shiro leans in, taking his weight.

“Thanks guys,” Shiro says to the group. “Now, I think we need to take a break. Relax some.”

“Of course,” Allura easily agrees. “I’ll drop off the metal to the Tarnathians and we’ll start heading to Olkari next.”

“I’ll help, Princess,” Lance volunteering with a bright grin.

“Right. Thanks, Hunk,” Keith says as Hunk reaches out and takes the plate from his hands.

“No problem man. If you need anymore, call me.” Hunk smiles and heads off in the direction of the kitchen.

Shiro helps Keith stand, keeping a solid hand under his arm as Keith finds his footing. They slowly walk towards the bedrooms. Keith leans against Shiro, leeching off his warmth. Shiro thumbs open the door and Keith immediately collapses on the soft bed, face down on a pillow.

He can hear Shiro let out a small laugh from over his shoulder. “You should take a shower, babe.”

Keith lets out an incoherent grumble into the pillow.

Shiro helps wrestle him out of his boots and belt. He frees the blanket from under Keith and drops it over him. Shiro leans over the bed, runs a hand through Keith’s hair and presses a kiss to his temple before heading towards the bathroom.

“Love you,” Keith calls out around the pillow.

“Love you too, babe,” Shiro replies, happiness making his voice warm.

Keith grins into the pillow as the shower turns on and he can hear Shiro start humming an earth song.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a day late, but it also kept growing as I wrote it. Blame my muse.
> 
>  
> 
> [ I have a tumblr!](http://isingtheskyelectric.tumblr.com)


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